News > North America

Charlottesville UBF, US
March 28, 2014

2014 Key Verse Testimony
"For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect." (1Cor 1:17)

Review of 2013

The life of a mature person seldom goes as he or she plans. Even Peter was told that "others would dress him and lead him where he did not want to go" (Jn 21). I believe this must be especially true for mature Christians. We learn from Jesus to gradually yield our life to the control of the Spirit, and as we give Him control, we lose that control. Last year, I believe the Lord really worked in me in this respect.

First, I started the year 2013 in the middle of a sabbatical. I had begun it in September 2012, and was continuing to refrain from preaching on Sundays. Our family visited a church in our community, and I sat and listened to another man preach. This was hard. By late February, my family was beginning to miss our Sunday services. When Matthew asked to hear me preach instead of going to the church, I was thrilled, and in early March, my sabbatical came to an end.

My key verse for the year was one I hoped would help me to grow in spiritual boldness, from Judges 6:14, where God commands Gideon, "Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?" I hoped God would help me to learn to go boldly out and preach, as I wanted, in the open air. It turns out that I had the chance to do exactly this during the summer, when some Christians in Washington DC allowed me to preach in Starburst Plaza with them one Saturday afternoon. I believe God was honored and hearts were moved. Several folks were singing along with "Jesus Loves Me". Hearts seemed to open right up. It is much easier to preach open-air when there are many people around supporting. I'm not sure yet if I can preach as I wish here, alone on the UVa campus. But I believe God is sovereign, and will pour out His Spirit in His time.
I pray God may send me out, as he sent Gideon. For what I believe from this verse is that my strength matters very little in the business of saving souls and preaching the gospel. My preparation, training, knowledge, credentials, abilities, even my dedication mean nothing, when God wills to glorify His Son, He'll send his Spirit in power. He uses the humble ones who will obey, more than the religious professional who has opportunity, education or talent. The gospel is the power, which itself works in the hearer to inspire faith.

"Go in the strength you have and you shall save Israel." God can use us, though weak and timid as Gideon, to bring salvation to his elect, precisely because it is His work through the Holy Spirit. I am so thankful that the Lord would trouble to teach me this. I can do nothing apart from Christ; but by remaining in Him, I am confident He will bear much fruit through me, because He promised it.

And praise the Lord! It is happening. God is working in several young people: A friend from my workplace (Michael) who is participating in the ministry at Lehigh, several UVa students, Alex, Greyson and Adam, also Nathan (a friend of Joshua's), and others. Also God has opened the door at a retirement community here where I have been serving music and occasionally preaching every Sunday for more than a year. Then last fall my neighbor also asked me to help him with his ministry to the UVa athletics teams through Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). Other doors of ministry are opening as well, as we make more and more friends in Virginia. So we praise God.

Like Gideon, I feel too timid to preach as I want. But I am still quite bold in one-on-one evangelism, or "fishing" as we used to call it. God has blessed, allowing me to meet and plant His word in many students. Whether many or few come, the act of being on the campus and teaching them, I believe, is pleasing to my Lord, sowing the seed which He causes to grow. So my main prayer is to continue doing the same thing for another year, in faith that God will bear fruit in His own good time.

New Verse for the New Year --- 1 Corinthians 1:17

"For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect."
Like many verses I have taken in the last few years, this verse is about preaching. Of course, I understand preaching is much more than standing and delivering a message; it is also one-on-one evangelism, street ministry, open-air preaching, itinerating, and teaching, and doing so whether or not I have a polished sermon to read. To me, preaching is to proclaim what God has said and done. God sent Paul to preach when he said, "Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." (Acts 13:2) Paul finds himself on the isle of Cyprus in the synagogue, preaching without hesitation. Later, in Pisidian Antioch, he preached so effectively that, while the Jews still rejected him, it says that "the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath." (Ac 13:42) But he didn't waver from his priority: the primacy of preaching was his driving focus, and the gospel was his solitary theme. Certainly Jesus commanded the disciples, "go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them." (Mt 28:19) Even so, Paul doesn't consider baptizing his main purpose, but preaching. Paul baptized several, but it wasn't his purpose or focus. The sacrament cannot save, but the gospel is the power of God for salvation. This is our confidence. Thank God who has made his calling sure to me.

Paul said this because the Corinthians were all wrapped up in the human leaders in the church. They wanted "rock stars" and "Great Men" rather than the power of the Gospel for their glory. So Paul rebuked them. Like the Corinthians, I am also carnal, desiring popularity and success rather than obedience and faith, as in sola fide. I am often ashamed of the gospel, in my carnal mind, wanting to mix in all sorts of amalgams to make myself appealing to people, especially intellectual arguments and high-sounding quotes from men who, themselves, really studied the Bible, while I do not; to hear people say "Wow!" and "Amen"; that is the big temptation. But Paul didn't yield to it. His preaching would never be with the wisdom of words to stimulate their intellect or merely stir up their emotions; it would be with the power of the gospel of God. We have every reason to believe that Paul was capable of impressive public speaking, if his writing is any indicator. He preached wonderfully in Acts 13. He kept people in the School of Tyrannus listening for several hours daily for two years. So it is certain that his preaching style was plain and simple because he chose simplicity over rhetoric. So he says he was sent to preach the gospel "not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect." Paul saw the danger of such preaching: in the end it "robs the cross of its power" [GNT], and “takes all the power away from the cross of Christ." [TNIV] In other words, when we preach with such words that people are impressed with us as preachers, they do not really believe in Jesus. They may join the church, conform to our Christian culture, or sign a pledge card. But the power of God is not at work in them.

Words are powerful. Those who know how to use words can sway people. This is clearly not the same as swaying people with the gospel's own raw power. The gospel doesn't need beautiful, clever, entertaining words. The most uneducated person can understand and accept the gospel, if we will only preach it in the power of the Spirit. To me, this is the challenge of maintaining a life of faith. If we are truly debtors to both the educated and the uneducated [Rom 1:14], it is most important to learn to preach without "wisdom of words", that is, to depend on the power of the gospel through the Holy Spirit. This is my single prayer topic for myself in 2014. Lord, grant me your power in preaching the gospel. Help me to do the work of an evangelist this year, and hunger more for your Word. Help us not get too involved in secondary matters, but preach the gospel first and foremost. Work in my family to grasp this power of God through our Sunday service, and to hunger for your Word also. AMEN.

Christopher Kelly